FAYETTEVILLE -- A panel of Washington County justices of the peace on Tuesday recommended spending more than $12 million of the county's $23 million in federal covid-relief funds for 2021.
The Quorum Court's Finance & Budget Committee voted to send five ordinances appropriating about $12.2 million in American Rescue Plan money to the full Quorum Court. The committee forwarded the ordinances with a "do pass" recommendation.
The justices of the peace endorsed a request for $5.4 million in federal covid-19 aid money for new self-contained breathing apparatus for the Rural Fire Association. According to the ordinance, most of the breathing apparatus now in use are more than 20 years old and do not meet current safety standards.
Willie Watts, assistant fire chief with the Fayetteville Fire Department and with the Farmington Fire Department, told the justices of the peace last week that changes made by the manufacturers of the equipment means any new models are not "backward compatible," meaning new models cannot be used alongside older models in many situations. Watts explained to the committee that one essential feature of the breathing apparatus, the "buddy breathing system," allows one firefighter to provide air to another by connecting the two air packs.
Watts said Tuesday the bulk of the spending will go to rural fire departments, with the Fayetteville and Springdale departments supporting the program in many ways beyond finances. Watts said both those departments routinely respond to fires and other calls outside their cities and both maintain equipment needed by all departments, including fill stations for the tanks used in the breathing equipment that cost about $60,000 each.
Also Tuesday, the committee recommended spending about $2.9 million for a program meant to increase the number of people receiving job training in health care. The Upskill program, spearheaded by the Excellerate Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation, is aimed at helping to provide training needed by regional businesses. The program's initial focus would be on health care, where there are more than 1,000 job openings in Northwest Arkansas annually, according to information from the group.
The money would be used for infrastructure needs, expanding training facilities in health care education at the Northwest Technical Institute and Northwest Arkansas Community College, and to provide support for ongoing programming efforts for the first five years of the project.
The group is also asking Benton County, Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers and Bentonville for financial support for the program. Each of those local governments is being asked to earmark 4% of the money it received through the American Rescue Plan. For Benton County, the amount being sought is about $2.2 million. Fayetteville is being asked to contribute about $742,000 while Springdale is being asked for $884,000. Rogers is being asked to contribute $485,000 and Bentonville is being asked for about $287,000, according to information from the group.
The justices of the peace recommended an ordinance to give bonuses to employees of the Road Department, but tabled two ordinances to give those hourly employees raises. The bonuses would come from a pool of $862,265 and would provide bonuses to employees for each week they work in 2022. Jim Wilson, justice of the peace for District 14, said the money would provide bonuses of about $150 per week, which comes out to about $3.75 per hour.
The committee agreed that the bonuses were a temporary measure, and Patrick Deakins, committee chairman, said the county will do a complete overhaul of its salary evaluation program in the first six months of 2022 to correct the structural deficiencies that have resulted in low pay for some county employees.
The committee voted to table indefinitely an ordinance to raise the pay of all Road Department employees currently making $17.99 per hour or less by $3 per hour. Employees currently making from $18 to $19.99 per hour would receive raises of $2 per hour. Employees currently making $20 or more per hour would receive raises of $1 per hour. The ordinance setting out the raises calls for the county to appropriate about $501,324 from unappropriated reserves in the Road Fund to pay for the increases in the county's 2022 budget.
The committee also tabled indefinitely an ordinance that would give all hourly Road Department employees a $1 per hour raise. That ordinance would have the county appropriate about $227,642 from unappropriated reserves in the Road Fund to pay for the raises in 2022.
The committee also recommended ordinance spending about $1.1 million from the American Rescue Plan money for new equipment for Central Emergency Services ambulance service and another ordinance appropriating almost $2 million from the American Rescue Plan money for the Washington County Sheriff's Office and Detention Center to continue a program of covid-related retention, referral and sign-on bonuses.
The justices of the peace voted to table a proposal to provide covid-related bonuses to employees of the prosecuting attorney's office who had worked remotely during the pandemic and were not eligible for bonuses under the terms of the American Rescue Plan. The ordinance would have taken about $75,000 from the county's general fund reserves to pay for the bonuses.
American Rescue Plan
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NoneThe American Rescue Plan provides $350 billion in federal money for eligible state, local, territorial and tribal governments nationwide to offset the impact of the covid-19 pandemic, according to information from the Treasury Department. Washington County has received $23 million this year under the plan and expects to receive another $23 million next year. Benton County will receive a total of $54 million — $27 million per year over the next two years.
Source: NWA Democrat-Gazette